Begin Again

For F*** Magazine

BEGIN AGAIN

Director : John Carney

Cast : Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld, Mos Def, James Corden, CeeLo Green, Catherine Keener

Genre : Drama, Romance

Opens : 3 July 2014

Rating : NC16 (Coarse Language) 

Running time: 104 mins

Lovin’ a music man ain’t always what it’s supposed to be, and that goes for the music men behind the scenes as well. In this musical romantic comedy, Mark Ruffalo plays Dan Mulligan, the down-and-out exec of music label Distressed Records, who has an estranged wife (Keener) and daughter (Steinfeld). While drowning his sorrows at a bar one night, British singer-songwriter Gretta (Knightley) catches his attention and he immediately sets about getting a hold of her so they can collaborate on a record. It turns out that Gretta’s long-time boyfriend and songwriting partner Dave Kohl (Levine) has strayed after letting stardom get to his head. Gretta tries to leave Dave behind as she, Dan, her best friend Steve (Corden) and a motley crew of session musicians embark on recording an album on the streets of New York, guerrilla-style.

            Begin Again, formerly titled Can a Song Save Your Life?, is written and directed by John Carney of Once fame. The micro-budget Irish indie flick became a cult favourite after netting a Best Original Song Oscar for Falling Slowly and was adapted into an acclaimed musical running on Broadway and the West End. Begin Again can be seen as Carney “going Hollywood”, trading in a cheap video camera for a fancy Red Digital and having Hollywood names and pop stars in the cast. While Begin Again is certainly a glossier, slicker affair, it still retains a good measure of earnestness and sweetness and is sure to appeal to fans of music movies. In what might be somewhat meta commentary, the theme of “indie vs. big record label” crops up. There’s also a rather surprising bit of anti-product placement: Dan takes a sip of Pepsi and wonders aloud “God damn, how do people drink that?!”

            Many of the elements in Begin Again can be described as “formulaic” – there’s the maverick music producer who has been reduced to an unkempt mess but who gets a second wind upon discovering an ingénue, the disapproving ex-wife and the rebellious daughter and the ingénue’s unfaithful rock star boyfriend. An early scene has a frustrated Dan tossing demo CDs out of his car window, fed up with inane pop and in search of “real music”. However, the film does possess enough self-awareness such that it doesn’t drown in a morass of clichés and that there’s a still a soul to it. Carney also has a little fun with the structure of the first half of the film, starting in medias res before rewinding to the start of that day, telling the story from Dan’s point of view – and then rewinding further and telling it from Gretta’s. There’s also a wonderfully whimsical moment of visual invention, when upon first hearing Gretta sing, Dan begins to imagine possible arrangements for the song; the piano, drums, cello and violin sitting on stage suddenly playing by themselves in his imagination.

            Mark Ruffalo is pretty much scruffy-sexy incarnate. Once again, he looks like he badly needs a shower and a shave, but perhaps that is part of his charm. He convincingly essays a man who has fallen on hard times but who clearly once had drive and inspiration, and when that returns to him he comes alive again. Keira Knightley’s role was originally intended for Scarlett Johansson – while we don’t get the Hulk and Black Widow making sweet music together, Knightley is a perfectly acceptable substitute. Her singing voice is very pleasant and she consciously avoids turning Gretta into an idealised “manic pixie dream girl” type. When she says “I’m not Judy Garland off the greyhound bus looking for stardom”, this reviewer believes her – but wants to see her make it in the music biz all the same.

            When it comes to the casting of established singers like Adam Levine and his fellow The Voice coach CeeLo Green, it’s a Catch-22 situation: on one hand, having actual musicians in your music movie gives it credibility but on the other, it can be distracting enough to pull one out of the experience. Green’s appearance in the film is more tolerable because as hip-hop star and old pal of Dan’s nicknamed Troublegum, he could well be playing himself. However, Levine is not a brilliant actor and this reviewer happens to find his high-pitched whine of a singing voice somewhat grating. We’re also 90% sure that the name “Dave Kohl” is some kind of a dig at the similarly-named Foo Fighters frontman.

            Begin Again is a great date movie because it isn’t yet another a production line rom com and it never becomes unbearably cheesy and sappy. It won’t redefine the music flick genre, but it does have its share of sweet moments. The songs, co-written by New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander with Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley, Rick Nowels and Nick Southwood, Once star Glen Hansard and Carney himself, are all very listenable if not especially memorable or catchy. And this is quite possibly the first movie to make splitter cables seem like very romantic objects.

SUMMARY: Begin Again’s formulaic elements are offset by its measured sweetness and charm.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

One Chance

For F*** Magazine

ONE CHANCE

Director: David Frankel
Cast:   James Corden, Alexandra Roach, Mackenzie Crook, Julie Walters, Colm Meaney, Jemima Rooper, Valeria Bilello
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 103 mins
Opens: 1 May 2014
Rating: PG

Before Susan Boyle took the world by storm and was the runner-up of the third season of Britian’s Got Talent, Paul Potts won the first season. Based on his life story, One Chance tracks Potts from his childhood in the Welsh steel town of Port Talbot to his success after winning the televised contest. It was far from a smooth ride – bullied as a child and stuck in a seemingly dead-end job as a mobile phone salesman, all Paul Potts wanted to do was sing opera. He faces teasing and torment, suffers rejection at a prestigious opera academy in Venice, overcomes accidents and illness and clears many other such hurdles in pursuit of his dream, supported by his girlfriend and later wife Julz (Roach), his mother Yvonne (Walters) and his co-worker and friend at the phone shop Braddon (Crook).

James Corden said in an interview with the BBC, “I think my reaction was the same as everyone else’s when they hear there’s a Paul Potts film. I was like ‘Really? Are you sure this is a good idea?’” It’s good to know that Corden was aware of the scepticism a biopic about a reality talent show winner would draw from the get-go. It’s a ripe target for scoffing but One Chance has enough talent behind it to work, and is sufficiently charming and humourous instead of overwrought and self-important. This reviewer was worried that One Chance would come off feeling like a sappy made-for-TV movie, but director David Frankel of The Devil Wears Prada fame has ensured that this doesn’t look cheap, with lots and lots of establishing shots of Venice to show for it.

Sure, a good chunk of the movie does feel embellished, ever so slightly melodramatic and contrived, but it’s also surprisingly funny. Paul Potts seems to have been on the receiving end of a whole string of rather unfortunate incidents, but the movie manages to stay uplifting and not lose that skip in its step. Justin Zackham’s screenplay does have its fair share of clichés and “true underdog stories” are nothing new in cinema, but One Chance is a movie that is easy to enjoy and go along with. All the elements at play here are familiar ones: a hero with a working-class background and an unlikely dream, a supportive mother but a disapproving dad, girlfriend troubles, a best friend on hand to provide comic relief, seemingly insurmountable obstacles and all that jazz (or opera, rather). Corden sums it up as a “sports movie”, except the sport here is opera. However, all this is presented palatably and the audience isn’t being hit over the head with some big stick, so it is a pleasant experience.

A large part of why this works is Corden’s turn as Paul Potts. Donning a set of veneers to capture the sorry state of Potts’ choppers before he got them fixed with his prize money, Corden is endearing and believable as the confidence-deficient phone salesman-turned opera star. He didn’t do his own singing and is dubbed by the real Potts in the movie, but that doesn’t detract from this sweet, loveable performance. Alexandra Roach won this reviewer over just as easily as Julz, the girl Potts met online and eventually married. The two share palpable chemistry and, while there is the inevitable rom-com-style big misunderstanding, Roach is always measured and brings considerable down-to-earth appeal to the part. Her performance makes it clear that Potts wouldn’t have been able to do it had it not been for the love and support of Julz and their love story is as central to the plot as Potts’ passion for singing. Crook is eccentric, funny but thankfully a safe distance from annoying as the designated comic relief and Julie Walters is as warmly maternal as she usually is. She is Molly Weasley, after all.

A particularly grim chapter in Potts’ life during which he was sexually abused by a Sea Cadets leader is omitted from the film and actually didn’t come to light until Potts’ autobiography (also called One Chance) was published after the movie’s release in the UK. That certainly would have made this a lot darker. As a biopic, One Chance is safe, predictable and sometimes cheesy, and one can’t help but feel the cloud of producer Simon Cowell’s gargantuan ego hanging overhead. There's also an annoying Taylor Swift song playing over the end credits. However, this isn’t as bad as it could have been, is pretty entertaining and yes, even actually inspirational.

Summary: The jaded should stay away from this sometimes-treacly biopic, but surprisingly, there is a fair bit here to enjoy, particular James Corden and Alexandra Roach in the leading roles.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong